David’s Quick Take for the Tl;Dr Media Consumer:
Shame is Ingmar Bergman’s “war movie,” a disclosure that already feels to me like I said too much, since I went into this one knowing next to nothing about it and was therefore all the more pleasantly stunned and staggered by the discovery. So if you haven’t yet watched it, stop reading now, and go do so right away, or at least before you proceed much further in reading here. It’s an excellent film and in my opinion, yet another marvelous, essential “must see” entry into Bergman’s canon. (Other critics, and even the director, don’t share my assessment; I’ll address that below.) But for those who’ve seen it, I have to figure they can agree with my surprise at the inclusion of screaming fighter jets, exploding grenades, dead paratroopers hanging from branches, machine gun blasts,...
Shame is Ingmar Bergman’s “war movie,” a disclosure that already feels to me like I said too much, since I went into this one knowing next to nothing about it and was therefore all the more pleasantly stunned and staggered by the discovery. So if you haven’t yet watched it, stop reading now, and go do so right away, or at least before you proceed much further in reading here. It’s an excellent film and in my opinion, yet another marvelous, essential “must see” entry into Bergman’s canon. (Other critics, and even the director, don’t share my assessment; I’ll address that below.) But for those who’ve seen it, I have to figure they can agree with my surprise at the inclusion of screaming fighter jets, exploding grenades, dead paratroopers hanging from branches, machine gun blasts,...
- 12/27/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 675 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.
Today they’ve unveiled their 2015 list, which includes classics such as Douglas Sirk‘s melodrama Imitation of Life, Hal Ashby‘s Being There, and John Frankenheimer‘s Seconds. Perhaps the most popular picks, The Shawshank Redemption, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and L.A. Confidential were also added. Check out the full list below.
Being There (1979)
Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer’s persona,...
Today they’ve unveiled their 2015 list, which includes classics such as Douglas Sirk‘s melodrama Imitation of Life, Hal Ashby‘s Being There, and John Frankenheimer‘s Seconds. Perhaps the most popular picks, The Shawshank Redemption, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and L.A. Confidential were also added. Check out the full list below.
Being There (1979)
Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer’s persona,...
- 12/16/2015
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ingrid Bergman’s oeuvre contains few performances that aren’t of note. Such is her power that, if a tear rolls down her cheek, you feel it. The release of Stig Björkman‘s new documentary Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words has prompted us to look back through the great actress’s filmography.
In our search for the essential Bergman roles, the performances which cemented her as a legend of cinema, there’s certainly a number of dazzling and iconic pictures to search through. Acclaimed examples such as Elena and Her Men, Joan of Arc, and Anastasia — the lattermost of which earned her a second Academy Award — narrowly and tragically found their way off the list.
Before checking out Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words, take a trip with us back through the career of one of the greatest talents to ever grace the silver screen. Enjoy the...
In our search for the essential Bergman roles, the performances which cemented her as a legend of cinema, there’s certainly a number of dazzling and iconic pictures to search through. Acclaimed examples such as Elena and Her Men, Joan of Arc, and Anastasia — the lattermost of which earned her a second Academy Award — narrowly and tragically found their way off the list.
Before checking out Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words, take a trip with us back through the career of one of the greatest talents to ever grace the silver screen. Enjoy the...
- 11/17/2015
- by Tony Hinds
- The Film Stage
Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...
- 8/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Recently, ABC released the new, official synopsis/spoilers for their upcoming "Marvel's Agents Of Shield" episode 17 of season 2. The episode is entitled, "Melinda," and it turns out that we're going to see some very interesting stuff as Skye learns more about her heritage. We finally get a glimpse at Melinda May's backstory, and more. In the new, 17th episode press release: The Secret Origin Of Melinda May Is Revealed. Press release number 2: The story of Melinda May's transformation into "The Cavalry" will get revealed as she finds herself at a crossroads in the war between Coulson and Gonzales. As Skye learns more about her true heritage from Lincoln, the truth about the Inhumans is going to send her in a new direction. Guest stars feature: Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, Ruth Negga as Raina, Kyle MacLachlan as Cal, Jamie Harris as Gordon, Christine Adams as Weaver, Blair Underwood as Andrew Garner,...
- 4/7/2015
- by Eric
- OnTheFlix
Chicago – “Autumn Sonata,” Ingrid Bergman’s last film and first collaboration with cinema’s other great Bergman (Ingmar), is a challenging film. Is it pure melodrama or is it raw human emotion? The line is a fine one, enhanced by the theatricality of the film, one that opens with a character breaking the 4th wall. And yet I choose to take “Autumn Sonata” seriously and not as emotional manipulation, a decision enhanced by the enlightening essay in the Criterion edition by Farran Smith Nehme, which reveals how much of both Bergman’s own issues with parenthood may have impacted this caustic commentary on how we don’t really change, even as death is staring us in the face.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Bad parents are as old as the form of fiction and yet Charlotte (Bergman) is a particularly loathsome one. In “Autumn Sonata,” the famed pianist is coming home to visit her...
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Bad parents are as old as the form of fiction and yet Charlotte (Bergman) is a particularly loathsome one. In “Autumn Sonata,” the famed pianist is coming home to visit her...
- 9/25/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
When I really began digging into classic cinema, one of the films I started with was Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, and it wasn't that long ago. According to Netflix, I returned the disc on January 8, 2008 after returning Bergman's Wild Strawberries about a month earlier (I wrote about them both briefly right here). I'd actually received both discs at the same time, but kept Seventh Seal a little longer because it had so truly captured my imagination. I've written about it a few times since, including a review of the Criterion Blu-ray a little over four years ago. I've found Bergman's work captivating ever since, several as a result of the Criterion Collection including reviewing Smiles of a Summer Night, Summer Interlude and Summer with Monica, Fanny and Alexander and The Magician along with my discovery of Persona two years ago, whose two-shot imagery is repeated in a highly...
- 9/24/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Two of the 20th Century’s best actresses team up – or square off, to be more precise – in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata from 1978. This simple, austere production peels away every layer of a tortured mother/daughter relationship, revealing decades of toxic damage deep within. The film presents an uncomfortably frank appraisal of one family’s stark dysfunction, and the bonds of codependency that ensure a continuing spiral of guilt. And after the wreckage is thoroughly surveyed and assessed, most viewers will recognize scattered bits of their own lives amid the emotional debris.
Here we meet Eva (Liv Ullmann), a mousey preacher’s wife in the rural south of Norway. She spends her quiet days performing musical selections for her husband’s church and dusting the tidy parsonage they call home. One morning Eva composes a letter to her mother Charlotte, a globetrotting concert pianist, inviting her for a visit.
Here we meet Eva (Liv Ullmann), a mousey preacher’s wife in the rural south of Norway. She spends her quiet days performing musical selections for her husband’s church and dusting the tidy parsonage they call home. One morning Eva composes a letter to her mother Charlotte, a globetrotting concert pianist, inviting her for a visit.
- 9/17/2013
- by David Anderson
- IONCINEMA.com
Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week
"The Bling Ring"
What's It About? Based on the real-life Bling Ring crew, Sofia Coppola's film tells the story of the Los Angeles teens whose claim to infamy was robbing the homes of celebrities. The teens who used the internet to track the whereabouts of rich celebs are portrayed by Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Taissa Farmiga, Israel Broussard, and Claire Julien.
Watch: Go behind-the-scenes with Taissa Farmiga (Video)
Why We're In: Coppola's approach to the tabloid-heavy story is one of the most compelling aspects of "The Bling Ring"," as she neither praises the characters, criticizes, or satirizes them. We get to watch the teens from an honest perspective and arrive at our own deduction of how technology and youth obsession with fame impact contemporary culture. "The Bling Ring" was also one of Moviefone's Best Movies of 2013 (So Far).
Rt & Follow to win #TheBlingRing...
"The Bling Ring"
What's It About? Based on the real-life Bling Ring crew, Sofia Coppola's film tells the story of the Los Angeles teens whose claim to infamy was robbing the homes of celebrities. The teens who used the internet to track the whereabouts of rich celebs are portrayed by Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Taissa Farmiga, Israel Broussard, and Claire Julien.
Watch: Go behind-the-scenes with Taissa Farmiga (Video)
Why We're In: Coppola's approach to the tabloid-heavy story is one of the most compelling aspects of "The Bling Ring"," as she neither praises the characters, criticizes, or satirizes them. We get to watch the teens from an honest perspective and arrive at our own deduction of how technology and youth obsession with fame impact contemporary culture. "The Bling Ring" was also one of Moviefone's Best Movies of 2013 (So Far).
Rt & Follow to win #TheBlingRing...
- 9/17/2013
- by Erin Whitney
- Moviefone
On TV this Sunday: Boardwalk Empire is back for another round, Unforgettable engages in a memorable treasure hunt, pain is beauty on Total Divas and Sunday Night Football has its Sunday kick-off. Here are 10 programs to keep on your radar.
8 pm Big Brother (CBS) | Two of the final five contestants are nominated for eviction. (Plus, will the underdog Exterminators continue their winning streak?)
8:30 pm Sunday Night Football (NBC) | The Dallas Cowboys host the New York Giants.
Related | Fall TV 2013: Your Handy Calendar of 100+ Season and Series Premiere Dates
9 pm Boardwalk Empire (HBO) | Season 4 premiere: Nucky makes a peace...
8 pm Big Brother (CBS) | Two of the final five contestants are nominated for eviction. (Plus, will the underdog Exterminators continue their winning streak?)
8:30 pm Sunday Night Football (NBC) | The Dallas Cowboys host the New York Giants.
Related | Fall TV 2013: Your Handy Calendar of 100+ Season and Series Premiere Dates
9 pm Boardwalk Empire (HBO) | Season 4 premiere: Nucky makes a peace...
- 9/8/2013
- by Rebecca Iannucci
- TVLine.com
The Bradford International Film Festival is typically an underground-friendly fest. This year appears to be no exception with two very special experimental film retrospectives, as well as a few modern underground-type flicks.
The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.
Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.
From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...
The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.
Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.
From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...
- 3/11/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Mk Raghavendra argues why Amour might not be the best film of the year:
Michel Haneke’s Amour was the most eagerly awaited film at the just concluded Iffi 2012. Audiences waited as the lights went down and responded spontaneously when the tiles appeared – not at the name of the film or the director or for the legendary actors starring in it but at the ‘Palme d’Or, Cannes 2012’ which appeared alongside the titles. What the national audience was clapping and whistling for was Cannes as a brand. Since such conduct implies unthinking faith in the judgments of film festival juries, I wondered if the members of the audience would be bold enough to evaluate Amour on their own after they had seen all of it.
Amour (meaning ‘Love’) stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert. The narrative focuses on an elderly couple, Anne and Georges, who are retired music...
Michel Haneke’s Amour was the most eagerly awaited film at the just concluded Iffi 2012. Audiences waited as the lights went down and responded spontaneously when the tiles appeared – not at the name of the film or the director or for the legendary actors starring in it but at the ‘Palme d’Or, Cannes 2012’ which appeared alongside the titles. What the national audience was clapping and whistling for was Cannes as a brand. Since such conduct implies unthinking faith in the judgments of film festival juries, I wondered if the members of the audience would be bold enough to evaluate Amour on their own after they had seen all of it.
Amour (meaning ‘Love’) stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert. The narrative focuses on an elderly couple, Anne and Georges, who are retired music...
- 12/4/2012
- by MK Raghavendra
- DearCinema.com
When critics discuss color in the work of Ingmar Bergman, it’s generally in relation to Cries and Whispers, the director’s brooding, confrontational 1972 film and a work that essentially demands to have its intense use of red be noticed as a Meaningful Cinematographic Element. More subtle and multilayered is Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist’s earlier, selective application of red in The Passion of Anna (1969), the third, often overlooked chapter in a trilogy of films Bergman made in the late 60s (Hour of the Wolf and Shame complete the trio). The trilogy centers on turbulent relationships between Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann on a cold, secluded island, and its primary recurring theme is the way internal tensions (sexual, artistic, moral, etc.) are materialized by encroaching, often violent, external forces. In The Passion of Anna, Andreas Winkelman’s (von Sydow) fear of human interaction and his repression of past...
- 10/28/2012
- by Carson Lund
- MUBI
Chicago – Many critics failed to take Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” seriously, dismissing it as an art house retread of “The Omen.” Such a simplistic label fails to take into account the film’s carefully textured portrait of a deeply fractured mother-son relationship. Though the film takes its premise to melodramatic extremes, it does harbor considerable insight into the repercussions of a disconnect between parent and child.
Eva (Tilda Swinton) is the sort of mother who causes strangers to wince while passing her in the supermarket. She can barely contain the intense dislike that she feels for her child. Motherhood is a form of entrapment in her eyes, and her attempts to care for her young son lack any sense of genuine compassion. When she snaps on a hollow smile to calm her crying son, the moment is both chilling and darkly funny. It only gets...
Eva (Tilda Swinton) is the sort of mother who causes strangers to wince while passing her in the supermarket. She can barely contain the intense dislike that she feels for her child. Motherhood is a form of entrapment in her eyes, and her attempts to care for her young son lack any sense of genuine compassion. When she snaps on a hollow smile to calm her crying son, the moment is both chilling and darkly funny. It only gets...
- 6/1/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The bleak Scandinavian landscapes have inspired a series of hit books about dour detectives, and more writers are now lining up to claim the Nordic crime crown
Among the growing band of the faithful – the millions of readers drawn to the bleak tradition of Swedish crime fiction – the litany can be recited with ease: Inspector Martin Beck, created by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in the 1960s, begat Henning Mankell's Wallander, and then Wallander begat Stieg Larsson's Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo.
With new episodes of Kenneth Branagh's Wallander promised and big-screen versions of Larsson's Millennium Trilogy due out soon in English as well as Swedish, what started as a genre with cult appeal has become part of the money-making mainstream.
Yet well before Mankell and Larsson's crime-solving anti-heroes reached our cinema screens, true aficionados of this Scandinavian genre understood that the family tree was more complex.
Among the growing band of the faithful – the millions of readers drawn to the bleak tradition of Swedish crime fiction – the litany can be recited with ease: Inspector Martin Beck, created by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in the 1960s, begat Henning Mankell's Wallander, and then Wallander begat Stieg Larsson's Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo.
With new episodes of Kenneth Branagh's Wallander promised and big-screen versions of Larsson's Millennium Trilogy due out soon in English as well as Swedish, what started as a genre with cult appeal has become part of the money-making mainstream.
Yet well before Mankell and Larsson's crime-solving anti-heroes reached our cinema screens, true aficionados of this Scandinavian genre understood that the family tree was more complex.
- 9/11/2010
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
Variety reports that the Bergman project will be filmed as a four-part mini series with a feature film in mind. Shooting begins in the fall of next year, which means if Bier really wants to, she could finish off The Revenge, bring it to the festivals and follow up with Which Brings Me to You. - The next question is: what behind the scenes re-enactments, what actors will sign up for this series/feature film? A female filmmaker who can direct drama in Susanne Bier will touch upon bigger than life material in a biopic series on Sweden's master filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. Variety reports that the Bergman project will be filmed as a four-part mini series with a feature film in mind. Shooting begins in the fall of next year, which means if Bier really wants to, she could finish off The Revenge, bring it to the festivals and follow...
- 2/18/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Danish director Susanne Bier ("Brødre," "Things We Lost In the Fire") will direct a four-part mini about the life of Swedish wirter/director/actor Ingmar Bergman for Sveriges Television (SvT) and the series will also be made into a feature film for theatrical release. Shooting starts in fall of 2011. SvT will produce. Gunnar Carlsson will serve as an executive producer and Christian Wikander as producer. Pic is budgeted at $12 million and is one of the most expensive projects SvT has ever taken part in. According to Variety, the mini is written by Swedish author Henning Mankell (married to Bergman's daughter Eva) and the first completed the first two episodes. The first is "Frenzy" and the second "Sawdust and Tinsel" - named after Bergman films.
- 2/15/2010
- Upcoming-Movies.com
12th Annual EU Film Festival Highlights, Week One: ‘I’m All Good,’ ‘Zift,’ ‘Kisses,’ ‘Shall We Kiss’
Chicago – The Annual European Union Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center has become a calendar-clearing event for foreign film and arthouse movie lovers in the city of Chicago, but working your way through what to see of the five dozen films can be overwhelming. Let us guide the way.
This year’s edition, running from March 6th to April 2nd, includes high profile films from world renowned filmmakers like Peter Greenaway, Francois Ozon, Agnes Varda, Nicholas Roeg, Shane Meadows, Olga Malea, and Olivier Assayas, along with some movies that probably won’t be seen outside of the EU in the Windy City.
The 12th Annual European Union Film Festival includes 59 feature films, all of which are making their Chicago premiere. If you’re interested in seeing something off the beaten path, the EU is the fest for you. Week by week, every Wednesday, come back to HollywoodChicago.com for...
This year’s edition, running from March 6th to April 2nd, includes high profile films from world renowned filmmakers like Peter Greenaway, Francois Ozon, Agnes Varda, Nicholas Roeg, Shane Meadows, Olga Malea, and Olivier Assayas, along with some movies that probably won’t be seen outside of the EU in the Windy City.
The 12th Annual European Union Film Festival includes 59 feature films, all of which are making their Chicago premiere. If you’re interested in seeing something off the beaten path, the EU is the fest for you. Week by week, every Wednesday, come back to HollywoodChicago.com for...
- 3/4/2009
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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